The 27-kilometer (16.8 mile) LHC suffered serious overheating in several sections after the small piece of baguette landed in a piece of equipment on the surface above the accelerator ring.

Dr Mike Lamont, the LHC’s Machine Coordinator, said that a “a bit of baguette”, believed to have been dropped by a bird, caused the superconducting magnets to heat up from 1.9 Kelvin (-271.1C) to around 8 Kelvin (-265C), near the mark where they stop superconducting.

A failure like this, known as a “quench”, can be expected at around 9.6 Kelvin, CERN engineer Dr Tadeusz Kurtyka told The Register.

In theory, had the LHC been fully operational, this could cause a catastrophic breakdown like that which occurred shortly after it was first switched on last year. However, the machine has several fail-safes which would have shut it down before the temperature rose too high.

Billions of dollars went into this device, which was designed by "Top Scientists" ... that some bird-brain varment just fried with a bread crumb.

Actually no dollars went into this device. It was built by the EU not America (I seem to remember the US were asked to join in but as usual you said no because you wanted to build your own).

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Refresh my memory......WTF are we paying these people for?

You probably aren't so there's a relief.

Actually I have a serious point to make ... its all very well for the press to enjoy the joke when something like this happens but science has been getting a really bad press mostly from technology numb-skulls and religious ignorami who would still be on a flat earth if they had their way. It's about time scientific advances and adventures were actually applauded - try living for a week without the scientific and technological advances you enjoy!!

Before you respond with "what's the point" of experiments with no practical applications who would have thought most kitchens would have refigerators and microwave ovens a hundred years ago or hospitals would have the imaging devices they have now. I bet back in the early 20th century Marie Curie & co. were fighting to keep their funding too!

Actually I have a serious point to make ... its all very well for the press to enjoy the joke when something like this happens but science has been getting a really bad press mostly from technology numb-skulls and religious ignorami who would still be on a flat earth if they had their way. It's about time scientific advances and adventures were actually applauded - try living for a week without the scientific and technological advances you enjoy!!

Before you respond with "what's the point" of experiments with no practical applications who would have thought most kitchens would have refigerators and microwave ovens a hundred years ago or hospitals would have the imaging devices they have now. I bet back in the early 20th century Marie Curie & co. were fighting to keep their funding too!

+1 for that!

Physics is the most important and the most expensive of all sciences. No branch of science would be anywhere without physics. A few billion dollars to gain some insight into the nature of reality is a small price.

Applauded? Not enough. Praised? That's a good start.

It's these kinds of things that will propel knowledge and scientific advancement and technology.

www.symphonyofscience.com - A beautiful testament. (And thanks to posts from others here at DC for pointing me to it -- I truly appreciated that!)

Important science, with many practical applications, developed with public funds and used world wide. Many R&D and Science spending in general are the best success stories ever, many have generated massive profits for the private sector after the public funding phases have moved on to other projects.

I don't mind the levity of the original post/poster ( ). There is something humerous and ironic that such a hi-tec bit of kit (understatement) can be destroyed by a piece of bread!!! What I do object to is the assumption that all scientists do is waste public money on stupid research - plus the idea that it is always US money that is wasted.

I have just started working my way through the Carl Sagan series Cosmos again and one of the things I love (and often brings me to tears) is the sheer beauty of the Cosmos and the research that goes into exposing how it works. The great shame is that Carl Sagan hasn't seen the fruits of some of his work that have really only started to emerge since his death.

It is very hard to understand why scientists are labelled geeks, boffins and nerds whereas people who read Dickens or the Bible are classed by many to be more intelligent (which is why we now have universities full of people studying literature and media studies and a huge lack of people interested in pursuing 'hard science') - I'm afraid I'm left scratching my head in wonder at how attitudes have managed to deteriorate to this point.

You only have to look at education in the UK in recent decades to see how science (and maths) have been dumbed down to the point that it is difficult to get to a point where undergraduate study is possible in many universities without extensive remedial work to get students up to scratch in the first year.

I don't mind the levity of the original post/poster ( ). There is something humerous and ironic that such a hi-tec bit of kit (understatement) can be destroyed by a piece of bread!!! What I do object to is the assumption that all scientists do is waste public money on stupid research - plus the idea that it is always US money that is wasted.

I was actually coming from more of a global community angle (which the internet has made us), as in "we" the tax payers of any and all countries ... that have to pay for billion dollar projects that end up going awry in some unique way. And I have no problem with science, I've actually always thought it a much better "investment" than theology...

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It is very hard to understand why scientists are labelled geeks, boffins and nerds whereas people who read Dickens or the Bible are classed by many to be more intelligent (which is why we now have universities full of people studying literature and media studies and a huge lack of people interested in pursuing 'hard science') - I'm afraid I'm left scratching my head in wonder at how attitudes have managed to deteriorate to this point.

Literature is easy to pontificate on (image is everything these days, ya know...) ... Read a book and then rattle off some long winded explanation of what you think it meant in a forceful manner and the crowd will generally all nod because they all want to fit in. Science on the other hand requires that you actually really do know something it depth as guess work tends to be fatal. Hence it requires a bit more driven and dedicated type of participant.

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You only have to look at education in the UK in recent decades to see how science (and maths) have been dumbed down to the point that it is difficult to get to a point where undergraduate study is possible in many universities without extensive remedial work to get students up to scratch in the first year.

At least most of your students can still read, ours can hardly form sentences half the time.

Imperial Officer: "We've analyzed their attack, sir, and there is a danger. Should I have your ship standing by?"Grand Moff Tarkin: "Evacuate? In out moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances!"